What are elite rowers?

Elite rowers are high performance athletes who compete at national and international level.

An elite rower can start competing as a junior (under 18) at national and international championships. To become a junior world champion, a junior rower must win a gold medal in his/her boat class at the World Rowing Junior Championships.

Reaching full potential as an elite rower takes years of hard training, and it is usually the athletes with longer experience who achieve the best results - rowing's most successful rower ever, Sir Steve Redgrave, obtained his fifth Olympic gold medal at 38 years of age. This is why the International Rowing Federation (FISA) have established a World Rowing Championship for Under 23 rowers, allowing them to further develop physically and technically to become competitive at senior level.

An elite rower works hard to become a world champion. The World Rowing Championships are held every non-Olympic year, and world champions are crowned in 14 men's events and 9 women's events.

The ultimate goal of a rowing athlete is to become an Olympic champion. The Olympic Regatta is held every four years during the Olympic Games.

I can't wait until Crew starts again. After almost 8 months out for military training, all I can do is dream of getting back on the water again. I want to feel the set, feel the slide, feel the force behind the stroke, and feel the perfect physics of motion defined by ones desire to overcome those physics and become the "elite".